Zvuči ubedljivo? Uticaj glasovne strukture na odabir naziva brenda kod srpskih studenata anglistike

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to determine whether the sound structure of brand names has similar effect on Serbian EFL learners’ brand name preference. To answer the proposed research questions, we conducted an experiment consisting of three tasks. In the first task the students had to determine which of the given brand names they preferred based solely on the auditory criterion, i.e. only based on the sound of the brand’s name. The second task was to try and guess what type of product stands behind the name of the brand. The brand names were classified into several categories based on the product type. After the students had made their choices, the answers were statistically analyzed and the first ten brand names in each category were carefully analyzed in terms of their sound structure. The third task was to design one’s own original brand name and to name the product it would represent (they had several product categories to choose from beforehand). This task was analyzed in a similar fashion to the previous two. Namely, the brand names were separated by categories and their sound structure was analyzed again. A total of 68 second- and third-year English-major students at the Faculty of Philology and Arts (academic year 2017/2018) participated in the study. The results were then compared to the findings in previous studies and it was confirmed that the sound structure of brand names did convey a peculiar phonetic symbolism at least as far as our sample of participants is concerned.